Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: L

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

L is for left, which could be the past tense of 'leave' or the opposite of 'right'. In order, the verb 'to leave' has a clear etymology traceable through Old English laefan, Proto-Germanic laibjanan, and Proto-Indo-European leip, all having the general meaning of 'allow to remain as it is'.

When it comes to the opposite of 'right', many parents will have taught their children (as the majority were right-handed) the way to remember which was which was to think the hand you write with as your right and the one which is left is your left. Assuming the child was not left-handed (or did not have three hands) this would work. This idea of the right hand being the correct hand is also known (and famously so) in the term 'sinister' which was also once used for left-handedness, itself seen as unlucky or suspicious for much of history. This must be a very old idea as so many languages see 'left' as bad, including the root of all those in European and to the east, where Proto-Indo-European laiwo meant 'considered suspicious'.

The political left-wing is not used in 1871, but it had been used in a military sense since 1530. Having two left feet is first recorded in 1902, while the left bank of a river, first recorded in the 13th century, is that side which is on the observer's left when facing downstream.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: K

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

K is for kind, as in 'sort, variety' and also in 'friendly'. Taking these in order, the noun can be traced to Old English gecynd, not only 'kind' but importantly 'race, nature' and thus related to 'kin'. This is from Proto-Germanic kundjaz 'family, race' and derived from Proto-Indo-European gene 'give birth, beget'.

The adjective 'kind' has exactly the same origins as the noun, but Middle English also gave us the alternative kinde with this usage.

Nobody used womankind until the late 14th century; no one was described as kind-hearted until 1530; and one-of-a-kind was not used until 1961. Lastly the slang 'kinda', clearly a form of 'kind of', but a word which was once given as 'kinder', and even Charles Dickens used it, albeit he gave it as kiender.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: J

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

J is for jam, be it a fruit preserve, or in the sense of wedged, tightly packed, or even in the musical sense. Taking these in order, the preserve is has only been known as 'jam' since around 1730, this almost certainly from the method of production in crushing the fruit. As a verb it has only been seen since 1716, but likely comes from the Old English cham 'to bite, gnash' and still seen in English (albeit probably only preserved by classic comics) 'chomp'.

Other uses such as the jamming of machinery, seen since 1851; the jamming of radio signals, since 1914; and to play impromptu music from 1935.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: I

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

I is for iron and today possibly the use for the metal may be falling behind the use for the pressing of clothes. The metal is clearly the oldest of the uses, indeed there is even an Iron Age referring to a stage of technological advances where iron was smelted, an improvement on the earlier Bronze Age. The word is first seen in Old English iren, from Proto-Germanic isarn, and probably loaned from isarnon of the Celtic languages and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European eis meaning 'strong'. Hence the idea is this newly smelted metal was much stronger than bronze and appropriately named as 'the strong metal'. Related terms are seen in Sanskrit isirah 'vigorous, strong' and Greek ieros 'strong' and, through the context in which these terms were used, is thought to have been seen as 'the holy metal'.

The other sense of 'iron', that of removing creases from clothing, stems from that metal being used to produce the tool. For much of its life it has been known as a flat iron, and not until 'to iron' was seen as a verb (hence we do the ironing) was it known as an iron.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: H

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

H is for heel, obviously the part of the foot is by far the most common use. It comes from Old English hela, Proto-Germanic hanhilon, and Proto-Indo-European kenk which not only referred to the bend of the heel but also the bend at the knee.

Heel is also used to refer to a contemptible individual. It is first seen in US underworld slang in 1914, probably because it referred to one of the lowest standing. Similarly, the phrase 'down at heel' refers to well-worn footwear. Also, there is the now lost term of fighten with heles literally to 'fight with heels' and referring to fleeing the confrontation.